Take out your tri-tip out and trim most of the fat cap off (some places remove this before buying). Add your tri-tip and marinade to a zip lock bag and let it rest in your refrigerator for 2 hours. When cooking on a smoker find a good quality rich wood like hickory, pecan or the california favorite red oak. Check out Fruita wood chunks to get the best quality wood. Get your smoker or grill(with one side of burners lit) up to about 240-255 degrees and put your tri-tip on over indirect heat. Cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the internal temp hits 130. At this point remove your tri tip and place over high heat on a grill (this called reverse searing, its the best way to do a tri-tip). Sear all sides of the tri-tip until the internal temp hits 140-145. Take off and let rest 10 min before cutting against the grain. Enjoy

ROOFTOP RIBS

My favorite thing to cook, ribs. There are a few different kinds of pork ribs: spares, baby back and, what were going to teach you today, St. Louis. St. Louis ribs are the only kind we cook for competition. They’re nice and meaty, cook evenly and have a great presentation. St. Louis ribs are trimmed from the spare ribs—this can be done yourself but it is easier just to buy them trimmed and it ends up to be about the same price even though the spare ribs are cheaper per pound then the St. Louis.

Trimming

Now you have a rack of St. Louis ribs in front of you. The first step is to remove the membrane. Turn the ribs over so the bone side is up. Insert a butter knife under the membrane, between the bone and membrane. Do this on the far end where the bones are showing. After inserting the butter knife lift up the corner of the membrane. Then use a paper towel to grip the membrane and pull across removing the membrane. This takes some practice to remove it in one piece, just keep at it after a few ribs it well become easier. Once the membrane is removed, move on to the next step. Flip the ribs over so the meat side is up. One end of the ribs will have a layer of fat, trim the fat until you see meat. You now have a perfectly trimmed St Louis Rib.

Seasoning

Take your ribs and generously coat in Rooftop Chipotle Molasses Rub. Doing one side at a time, use your hand (wearing a glove during rubbing is helpful) and gently push and rub the seasoning into the rib. You can’t over season these so be generous.

Smoking

We know not everyone has a smoker. For those that do, we like to smoke our ribs at 250 degrees over pecan and cherry wood.

For those that don’t, you can use your grill, just turn on one or two burners on one side and get your grill to around 250 degrees. Place your meat on the opposite side of the grill meat side up. You can use a handful of smoking wood chips wrapped in tin foil ove the flames to give you that smokey flavor.

Wrapping

After about an hour and a half to two hours check your ribs. We look for the meat starting to pull away from the bone and the ribs starting to sweat (when the fat starts rendering out)—about this time we get everything ready to wrap our ribs. This is where you can get creative. Take your ribs to a large piece of tin foil, to the foil we add more rub and butter and a few other things we cant say, but have fun with this and experiment trying different ingredients. Wrap you ribs up tight making sure not to tear any holes in the tin foil. You might want to double wrap them.

Finishing

Let your ribs cook for another hour or so but keep an eye on them—they can over cook real easy in the foil. Take a peak about every 15 min after the first hour. Look for how much the meat is pulling back from the bone. When the meat is inbetween 1/4 and 1/2 in inch from the bone, take them out of the foil and place back on the smoker or grill. Be careful removing them from foil and disposing foil. theres very hot liquid still in the tin foil. Now let your ribs firm up a little on the BBQ. We normally keep them on there for about another 30 to 45 min. Then take your favorite sauce (Rooftop BBQ sauce will be available in the next year), lightly brush the sauce on both sides and let the sauce set on the ribs in your BBQ, for about 10 min. Good luck!